How about somewhere spacious and fairly central in North Yorkshire; build a complex there with its own runways and helipads and decent access to the A1. A comprehensive hospital would probably not be required, but it could be focussed on trauma, post-traumatic stress and long-term palliative care (where the rural setting would come into its own), in which it would unfortunately rapidly become a national centre of excellence. Manning could be done by a combination of RAMC for the medical side and an MOD-owned civilian agency with Defence in the title; best it's kept well away from the NHS, that way it might work. Paid for out of the defence budget but with 15% of annual costs contributed from the Treasury to allow use by other agencies.

Provided it doesn't become the Labour Party's private hospital, of course

You are, I suspect looking at this from a patient pov, which is quite understandable but one of the issues relating to military hospitals was that military medical staff were not getting the right kind of medical experience working in them. Very little trauma etc. Another problem was that if all your clinical staff are committed to working in a hospital and somebody calls a war you don't have any clinicians to send to that war.

The MDHU's were supposed to correct these problems. Unfortunately for a number of complex reasons they don't.

I've seen/heard a number of suggestions as to how to deal with this but none of them square the circle. The system is broke but nobody knows how to fix it.

You are, I suspect looking at this from a patient pov, which is quite understandable but one of the issues relating to military hospitals was that military medical staff were not getting the right kind of medical experience working in them. Very little trauma etc. Another problem was that if all your clinical staff are committed to working in a hospital and somebody calls a war you don't have any clinicians to send to that war.

The MDHU's were supposed to correct these problems. Unfortunately for a number of complex reasons they don't.

I've seen/heard a number of suggestions as to how to deal with this but none of them square the circle. The system is broke but nobody knows how to fix it.

Click to expand...

Recruit, Retain and properly fund. The military will always have enough injured people to justify a military hospital.

Why not share it with the emergency services and called it a training centre too.

How about somewhere spacious and fairly central in North Yorkshire; build a complex there with its own runways and helipads and decent access to the A1. A comprehensive hospital would probably not be required, but it could be focussed on trauma, post-traumatic stress and long-term palliative care (where the rural setting would come into its own), in which it would unfortunately rapidly become a national centre of excellence. Manning could be done by a combination of RAMC for the medical side and an MOD-owned civilian agency with Defence in the title; best it's kept well away from the NHS, that way it might work. Paid for out of the defence budget but with 15% of annual costs contributed from the Treasury to allow use by other agencies.

Provided it doesn't become the Labour Party's private hospital, of course

How about somewhere spacious and fairly central in North Yorkshire; build a complex there with its own runways and helipads and decent access to the A1. A comprehensive hospital would probably not be required, but it could be focussed on trauma, post-traumatic stress and long-term palliative care (where the rural setting would come into its own), in which it would unfortunately rapidly become a national centre of excellence. Manning could be done by a combination of RAMC for the medical side and an MOD-owned civilian agency with Defence in the title; best it's kept well away from the NHS, that way it might work. Paid for out of the defence budget but with 15% of annual costs contributed from the Treasury to allow use by other agencies.

Provided it doesn't become the Labour Party's private hospital, of course